- Make sure you have one point of contact with guaranteed 24 hour response to any service request
To ensure you keep your place of business free from unsightly clinical waste you should ensure your waste management company provides dedicated and accountable personnel. Insist that they act on any service request within twenty four hours and that there is only one point of contact.
- Ensure that your waste management company is a licensed waste carrier
As a waste producer, you are legally bound to comply with the ‘Duty of Care Act 1992 section 34’, which demands that clinical and sanitary waste is managed to the point of disposal.
That means your waste must be carried by a licensed carrier and a full audit trail of documentation must be available at any time. Failure to comply can lead to a hefty fine or even imprisonment. This applies to all commercial premises.
- Make sure you know where and how your waste is disposed of
There are regulations in place to ensure that clinical waste is managed safely and is recovered or disposed of without harming the environment or human health. Your clinical waste and waste from sanitary bins can be put into landfill, incinerated or even recycled. Ask how your waste management company deals your waste.
Currently landfill is the most common method for sanitary and clinical waste disposal. However, not only does it take valuable room in landfill sites but the methane gas produced as it rots is thought by some scientists to contribute to global warming. Worse still, the decomposing waste can become a polluter of groundwater used for drinking water supplies.
This is why you should insist on incineration and recycling whenever possible, even though it is up to ten times more expensive.
Modern incineration facilities are much more environmentally friendly and some sites even use the burning waste to generate electricity, putting the energy back into the system.
- Be aware of hidden charges such as waste transfer notes and landfill charges
Ask your current waste management company about their fees and additional charges. Ideally, you should be able to agree a fixed contract price with them. Don’t let them charge you extra for consignment paperwork such as transfer notes.
Be aware that your choice to incinerate your sanitary bin waste, sharps waste and other clinical waste should not incur additional charges. If your waste management company is a responsible organisation, it will insist on incineration anyway.
- Avoid long term contracts
Some waste management companies insist on long term contracts in order to prevent you from moving away, even if they provide a low quality of service. Avoid being tied into a poor service by insisting on a first contract of one year only. Your decision to stay with a company should be due to their high levels of service, not because you are stuck with them.
Any quality waste management company will guarantee to call on time every time throughout an agreed service contract. Make sure you have this guarantee before you sign up.
- Understand your legal duties as a responsible establishment
It is your duty of care to assess the nature of your waste and consign it correctly. There are serious penalties for failing to do so. Similarly, your waste disposal company is liable to prosecution if found to be failing in their duty of care.
The Environment Agency (EA) has announced that all clinical waste – unless proved to be non-infectious – should be treated as hazardous waste. The definition of infectious in Environment Agency’s Guidance WM2 is ‘Substances containing viable micro-organisms or their toxins which are known or reliably believed to cause disease in man or living organisms’.
The new Hazardous Waste Regulations came into force on 16th July 2006 to replace the Special Waste Regulations 1996. The changes combine waste regulation and classification within the EU, and fully implement the European Waste Catalogue (EWC) codes. From 16th July 2006, waste is only described by the EWC codes and, where waste is identified as hazardous, a new notification and regulation process applies.
The key changes introduced in the new legislation are:
- Registration
Premises generating more than 200kg of clinical waste must be registered with the Environment Agency (EA). There is a fee for doing so but you can register on the EA website. Registration must be renewed annually and it is illegal for a waste collector to take waste from an unregistered producer.
- Mixing
Waste types may not be mixed either by the producer or the collector.
- Notification
Pre-notification of movement of special waste to the EA is no longer required, but a numbered consignment note is still needed for each movement. On a quarterly basis, your waste management company must send a summary of all consignments to the EA with reference number. The EA then invoices them for each consignment note raised in the quarter. Every consignment will incur a cost of £15.
- Fines
Fixed penalty notices with fines of £300 may be issued when non-compliance is found by the EA. The Environment Agency site www.environment-agency.gov.uk contains more information about the new regulations.
You might find it helpful to look at some guidance published by the Health and Safety Commission. This guidance, entitled "Safe Disposal of clinical waste" (HSC document (ISBN 0 7176 2492 7) gives comprehensive information on the transport and disposal of clinical waste. It costs £10.50 and can be ordered from HSE publications on 01787 881165.
- Registration
- Use appropriate hygienic and convenient containers
Ensure your sanitary bins and clinical waste containers are safe, simple and effective. Modern sanitary bins and clinical waste containers contain a sanitising treatment to render waste harmless, giving you the assurance that it is being correctly stored and treated.
Using the correct units will help safeguard you against possible legal action resulting from incorrect storage. Your waste management company should help you to provide a safe, hygienic working environment by providing safe temporary on-site storage for clinical waste.
The disposal of sharps and how you approach it says a great deal about how seriously you take the health and safety of your staff and the public. Use the correct sharps disposal unit to protect against accidental infection from potentially deadly viruses and ensure strict legal requirements are met.
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- 08/10/2007 - 9:35am
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